Technically, sleep and being knocked out aren’t the same thing. Sleep is a reversible altered state of consciousness. Unconsciousness isn’t reversible. I.E., you can’t be awakened. Neither is it beneficial for sleep.

And I third! YEAAAAAH!
Congratulations Mr.Sava! That’s really cool 😀 Really, reallly cool.
Love this scene here. The emotions going back and forth, and you can see the pain in Alex and Dan’s attempt to understand, console, do anything and feel sympathy.

Good luck with the screenplay! When I was in college I took a few screenwriting classes, including an adaptations class. Taking one of my favorite novels (Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin) and turning it into a script was one of the most fun times I’ve had. In any case, I think you’ll have fun adapting Dreamland into a script! Just remember, getting every little tid-bit in isn’t as important as preserving the essence of what the characters are, of what The Dreamland Chronicles are all about. To that end, I have every confidence in you 🙂

Two words, Scott: Creative control. Do not let Hollywood ruin your work. I have seen books not only diluted, but frankly RUINED. Examples include Eragon (which was not only an atrocious adaptation, but also an atrocious movie even for those who hadn’t read the book) and Congo (even Crichton was angry at the result of that one). On the other hand, simply having a hand in writing the script can go a long way towards preserving the essence of the story (such as in Jurassic Park, where Crichton was one of the screenwriters).

Alex: “What am I going to do?”
Dan: “…learn that they cast Woody Allen for your role in the Dreamland movie?”
Alex: *thud*
Dan: “Well, that worked.”

The Dark is Rising was an especially bad movie adaption. Even after I could stomach the fact that Will Stanton was wearing an iPod (which to me is like Frodo carrying a musket) and all the other stupid modern day changes, completely changing the sequences when he becomes an Old One was unforgivable. So yes, please keep things the same in your script and fight for it if you must, like William Goldman fought for the Princess Bride.

Did you watch Starship Troopers? The only thing they got right about that book was the name of the lead Character… the rest they decided towing it and hope for the best.. I watched it once after it came out on video and I have flatly refused to ever consider watching it again due to the blatant disrespect to the original book. One trilogy that was done well was Lord of the Rings yes they deviated from the book but they didn’t chuck the whole thing out and bring in their own version.

When he woke up Scott said it was tucked into his shirt. So I’m guessing it is still there although maybe part of the chain should be visible on the back of his neck when he leans forward. It is there for the story, but the page might have been made without it because it is supposed to be covered up.

On a different topic: Dreamland, as of right this moment, has 19,412 votes on TWC. Now I don’t know for certain, but I don’t think Dreamland has ever made it to 20,000 votes in a month before. Think we can get another 588 votes before the end of the day? Tell your friends! Even if they don’t read Dreamland (for shame! 😉 ), see if you can get them to vote from their computers on your behalf. Vote from work, and again from home. We can do it! Pass out the link: http://topwebcomics.com/vote/4274/default.aspx
(I know it won’t change our ranking, we’d have to get over 5000 votes to beat “The Meek” out of 5th place; but it’s a fun milestone to try for … )

Tek I voted and I did it quite happily as this web comic (soon I hope to be a feature film) is the best I have seen. I am slowly going thru the back issues rereading and getting a fresh perspective on the now… plus it eases my addiction to wanting more and more pages to read thru lol.

hehe, when I was first loading this page, there was a bit of lag but I tried to scroll down anyways. When the page finally responded, it jumped to where my scroll wheel told it to go, instead of sliding down. Just caused me to see something like panel 2 being replaced by panel 3 in the same position and it makes it looks like Dan is animated and walking towards Alex XD

Is it possible to continue having the vote button somewhere visible? If not in the blog section then on the side bar right above the search button or something?

Every one is thinking that Alex is going to ask Dan to knock him out. I say bull to that. Dan can probably break some bones, but the simple fact is that until Dan turns in to super man, he is stuck as a textbook nerd with a steadily deepening love with a textbook geek. Cue a day of Dan smacking Alex with the heaviest book he can find or that some one will lend him. Either the entire works of Shakespeare in original text, or two copies of the complete 40 year aniversary of the Lord of the Rings trilogy book (estimated to be about five US pounds and roughly 1,200 pages long, yes I did read it, yes, I am the hybrid between nerds and geeks). Unless some one has a copy of the Torah, Quiran, or the new and old testament of the Bible in one book. That is my guess any ways. Before religious fanatics jump down my throat, I am not part of any of these three religions, I am a quasi-budhist, I say quasi because I don’t sit around meditating like a budhist monk for weeks on end.

For the record, I never put much credence in the idea of Dan knocking Alex unconscious (with or without the aid of heavy literature), other than as a humorous hypothetical scenario as I mentioned earlier.
I suspect that if Alex does get any help getting to sleep, it’ll be in the form of some advice on over-the-counter sleep aids from a certain friendly medical student. Anything more than that (especially anything in the way of chemical assistance) would probably be more dangerous ground, ethically speaking, than Scott really wants to tread here.
I could be wrong, though. It wouldn’t be the first time …

😉

P.S. There’s some really profound concept tugging at the back of my brain about the balance of Alex’s attention, and even his entire life, between the waking world and Dreamland. I can’t seem to quite focus it into words, let alone a working hypothesis, but it’s there nonetheless …
hmm …
💡

Honestly, I don’t think Alex is looking for a quick way to go back to sleep, as much as advice as to what to do once he gets there, to keep all damage to a minimum and prevent Nastajia from getting killed.

i understand. they’re making a movie, so cool! just try to have enough controll to keep them from doing to yours what they did to christopher poulini’s eragon. there was no character development in that movie at all. well ok, brom had some, but he was the only one.

Congrats on writing the screenplay! That’s so awesome!!! I hope you can practically make the movie Scott. Good book-to-movies I can thing of are the Chronicles of Narnia, TLOR, and, of course, The Princess Bride. Poor Alex, I bet Dan can save him again, (like when he was falling from the castle.)

Personally, I was disappointed in the Chronicles of Narnia adaptations, particularly the second one. So much stuff was added (attacking the castle, conflicts between Caspian and Peter, infatuation between Suzan and Caspian…) that had no place being there. The first one wasn’t quite as bad, with only minor changes. but still…